Reserve on DoorDash in NYC
A same-day special! DoorDash as a new demand channel is a Big Deal.
DoorDash launched restaurant reservations in New York on Thursday, offering a mix of exclusive and non-exclusive tables to app users in the city. DoorDash’s market entry offers a peek at the future of booking a table which might include a diner booking the same reservation through their platform of choice.
The reservations release is a high-profile realization of this summer’s SevenRooms acquisition in one of the most important restaurant cities in America. Immediately post-acquisition, DoorDash promised it would tap SevenRooms’ technology to give partner restaurants a clearer picture of fragmented diner behavior, and hinted that bookings would soon arrive on the platform.
Reservations functionality is also being used to drive those diners deeper inside the DoorDash ecosystem, by offering serious perks — in the form of delivery credits — to some users who book through the app.
That’s probably because not all the reservations available on DoorDash are exclusive to DoorDash. For example: A 5:30pm table for two at Francie in Brooklyn is listed on DoorDash, Resy, and OpenTable. But guests who book through the DoorDash app are offered a $12 delivery credit after dining, something the other platforms can’t provide.
John Winterman, co-owner of Francie, told me that his restaurant lists 75 percent of its inventory on Resy, with just a handful of covers on other platforms, including DoorDash.
“That allows us to capture clientele we wouldn’t normally see,” he told me. Nearly everyone who books through OpenTable, for example, is a first-time diner, he said.
That’s because the established platforms have something DoorDash doesn’t have: network power. Plenty of diners use Resy and OpenTable apps to search for and discover restaurants thanks to the tens of thousands of restaurants listed on their platforms. Diners can easily develop a preferred platform; Resy offers special access to some Amex cardholders; OpenTable’s Visa deal and Uber partnership do the same for others. This is what makes a multi-channel strategy so appealing to a restaurant trying to fill its tables. Why list them in one place when you can list them everywhere?
A multi-channel strategy does require some extra hustle; Tatiana Meija, the maître d’ at Francie, said she has to keep an eye on any changes and cancellations that come through on other platforms, checking multiple times per shift. But it’s worth it.
“We have to acknowledge that not everyone is on one system,” Winterman said. “We’re leaving people at the door if we aren’t paying attention to this.”
Thanks to its SevenRooms buy, DoorDash is well-positioned to offer this kind of demand channel. SevenRooms long sold itself to restaurants as a way to accept reservations that worked in tandem with existing services like Resy and OpenTable. In a September interview with Expedite, Parisa Sadrzadeh, DoorDash VP of strategy and operations, said as much:
“Getting into the reservation space allows us to offer a new capability to the many, many restaurants on the platform today who offer reservations, and could use another demand channel to do so,” she told me.
That doesn’t mean exclusivity is gone.
Signing exclusively with one reservations provider — especially if that exclusivity comes with a cash infusion — makes sense for a certain type of super-popular restaurant. If the books are full most nights, there’s little need to post inventory elsewhere.
I’ve heard the same rumors you’ve heard about these reservations exclusivity arrangements — that is, money talks. The fact that booking platforms, and/or their contracted partners, pay hot restaurants to come to or stay on their platforms is no longer an industry secret. (Remember when Matt Tucker, Tock’s leader, unexpectedly blew that up on my podcast, the Simmer? How far we’ve come!)
Regardless of whether or not money changes hands, exclusive deals with hot restaurants lend credibility to the booking platforms. Based on the number of times I’ve seen it referenced in both direct communication and marketing, DoorDash seems very excited about its exclusive deal with NYC hotspot the Corner Store. Sister restaurant the Eighty-Six — which has only 12 tables — is also exclusive to DoorDash reservations. (When you book through the restaurants’ websites, the platform still branded as SevenRooms; that feels like an intentional choice from a company best known for delivery.)
This reservations exclusivity is a nice-to-have for a platform hoping to make a grand entrance into New York City in-person dining. But really, the Eighty Six and big sister Corner Store are just exclusive, no matter who’s taking their bookings.
Inside the DoorDash app, there are no reservations available to book at the Corner Store or the Eighty-Six before the end of the year. Still, both restaurants are listed first in the app’s reservations carousel, both sporting perfect 5-star ratings. I’ve never been to either, so I can’t offer my take on the score’s validity.
Maybe Taylor Swift will tell us?
